Kreature's School for Creatures of the Night

“It’s been a long time since we did this.”
“Too long.” Clive agreed wearing a smile. I smiled back as he squeezed me tighter against him and we watched the sunset go down in a range of lovely colours and the waves came up around our feet.
It was just like the old days, Clive was being sweet and romantic, forgetting all about the project, the mission. Even if because of it, we were able to have this moment in the sun.
Then everything went dark, I looked around and saw Clive was gone and I stood alone in the water at waist deep. I called out for Clive confused but got no answer, and then I was pulled beneath the water. I struggled as the person held me down, he was too strong.
I woke up with a start, breathing deeply and now feeling silly. I was a vampire… I didn’t need to breath, I didn’t need to worry about drowning… Stupid caught up in the moment dreaming.
I looked out the window, it was still early out, dinner time for those on day hours. I took a deep breath and rolled over… to find no Clive next to me.
I growled in annoyance, cursing my partner for the past sixty years that had started out as my boyfriend and was feeling less and less like it every day. Not that I didn’t completely not care for the guy anymore… But jeez, I was so tired of him putting everything before me.
And I meant everything. Ever since they invented ESPN he’s watched it, obsessed with silly human sports… Seriously, one time I tried seducing him with trying on revealing clothes and I got a “Yeah, That one’s good Scar… Could you move, I can’t see the game…”
That was ten years ago. You can imagine how our relationship has continued to grow.
I got up thinking so many things and pulled on one of Clive’s clean, very oversized shirts and a pair of Uggs, because I knew they would distract Clive on the reasoning point to why human girls wore them all year round even though in the summer their feet get overly hot.
It was the little things that kept me sane.
But I was tired of it all. Of his obsession with his work and sports, I had often read relationship stories and magazines about woman just like me, who are neglected and taken granted for… Maybe I should have an affair… It’s not like he would notice. During his precious football game he would probably be all like “Can you keep it down? The game is on.”
Yeah, That is exactly what he would do.
But… No, I couldn’t do that. I didn’t want an affair and I certainly did not want Clive anymore. I went to the lab and began to work, all the while thinking about what to do, looking at the clock every few minutes, my decision becoming more solid every second that passed.
At five after eleven I finally heard the front door open. I pulled my hair back in a loose ponytail as I prepared for the scolding, thinking out everything I was going to say to him. I turned back to face the room and Clive, only to come face to face with a vampire I didn’t know, nor did he look very friendly.
“They told me you were cute. I really didn’t believe them. Seeing you now though- Phew. I really didn’t think Clive had it in him to bag a hottie like you.” Said the vamp, eyeing me up.
“Bleck,” I said feeling ill with every word he said, “Save your narration for private use.”
He smiled, “You really shouldn’t taunt me sweetcheeks.”
“Sweet-” I began seriously annoyed. I pointed at the door, “There is the door, I suggest you take it in exit before I throw you through it.” I ordered him, trying to be threatening but oddly enough, people never found my 5’ 4” figure very intimidating.
“Oooo…” He said and the next thing I knew he had me up against the counter, “I like ‘em feisty.”
Okay, note to self, if I lived through this I was really going to have to take those self defense classes. Don’t think of me as one of those lame, useless girls who stand around and scream as their beloved takes the thrashing… I would have learned how to fight, I just never needed to acquire the skill up till now, I was a scientist, not a bloody boxer.
“Get off of me!” I screamed.
“That’s it, Keep struggling…”
Okay, I so did not need to take this. I got one of my arms free and smashed a beaker filled with bleach against his face, he flew off howling in agony.
“I said sod off!” I snapped as I ran for the door but didn’t get far, the vampire jumped on me.
“You’ve blinded me, you bitch! You’re going to pay for that one!” He shouted and the next thing he knew he was terminated, my savior already on the other side of the room tapping away on one of the computers.
“Clive!” I shouted getting to my feet, “What the hell-”
“Go pack your things Scarlet.” He ordered and then shoved the computer off the desk.
“Clive!” I shouted again, “What are you-”
“No time for questions Scarlet- Just pack.” He dumped out a garbage can and started pouring our research on paper in it. He took out a matchbook but I grabbed his hands and he looked at me.
“Maybe I’ll pack after I find out what’s going on.”
“Fine.” He shook off my hands, “There’s a new vampire in town and he wants what we have.” He struck the match and dropped it in the can, the pages lit.
“And what do we have?” I asked, the romantic side of my brain thought he was talking relationship wise.
“To walk in the sun.”
Half of me felt stupid on thinking Clive would randomly start being romantic again, the other part didn’t see the problem with this and a third part was still confounded that Clive was destroying his life’s work, “So? If we have a willing participant… I thought we made the tonic so we could help other vampires, not hoard it-”
“We can’t let him have it. He may be new to town but he’s not a new vamp. His name is Theo, If you had read the history books you would know why he can’t be like us.”
“I read the history books.” I defensively snapped.
“Then you’ll know all about Theo the Controller.”
“I may have skipped that part…” I played absentmindedly with my ponytail as Clive grabbed my notes, “Hey! Those are mine!” I grabbed the other end of them but he kept a tight grip on it to, “You may want to throw away all your work but-”
“We can’t let anyone get a hold of this Scarlet. Especially Theo. He is evil. He’s enough trouble during the night and if he takes the concoction then he’ll stir up more chaos then he did six hundred years ago.”
“If he’s such a baddy, Why have I never heard of him?”
“Because he’s been out of circulation the past six hundred years, thought to have died, and you would know this if you had read the history books!” Annoyance had slipped into his voice as all there had been was panic up till now.
“And he just decides to randomly join the party again?”
“No, not randomly.” He ripped the files from my hands, “Because he’s been waiting for something to make his path of destruction easier and we were just the idiots to create that.” He added the papers into the flaming trash.
“So we hide our work!” I tried to snatch them back out without burning myself, Okay I know I was sounding slightly hypocritical right now but I just wanted him to spend more time out of the lab, not burn everything we had achieved, “We’ve been working on this for decades and just to throw it all away-”
He turned me away from the trashcan and gripped my shoulders looking my right in the eye, “Scarlet, You’re the one who hates what our work has done, torn us apart- I am throwing it all away now. A century worth of our research destroyed to save our asses, to fix our mistake.”
“Our mistake?” I repeated, “Yesterday you called us miracle workers- Now we’re credited as mad scientists?”
“Just go pack your things Scarlet,” He ordered warily and began smashing things, searching out every scrap of paper.
I groaned, “I’m not yours to boss around Clive! I have my own-”
“We don’t have time for this Scarlet! He is coming and he wants the potion.”
“Then let’s just blow the whole bleeding building to the sky! Just destroy it and get the hell out of here so I don’t feel rushed to yell at you- Hey!”
He had taken a unfamiliar device from a cabinet and scanned my head then it made a beep! And it felt like an earthquake, a tiny and barely noticeable earthquake but still, rumbled in my brain.
“What the hell was that for!” I yelled in frustration.
“Just doing a little cleaning before I transport you out of here.”
“Doing some- You’re doing what?” My voice had become shrill, “If you mean you are transporting me via beam- I can tell you now I’m not going to do it!”
He stopped, “Scarlet, for the love of God, for once in your life just listen to me.” His dark eyes were begging.
“No.” I shook my head, “No, Clive. I’m not leaving and you can’t make me!”
“What are you going to do Scarlet? You can’t fight, And Theo may have been laying low but he is in no way out of shape. You are no match for him.”
“I’ll reason with him.” I foolishly decided, Clive snorted and turned away, “Not everything leads to fists Clive.”
“Well you’re right about that one Scarlet.” He ran a hand through his hair, “With Theo, It will lead to one bloody mess… brought on by a number of painful tools collected over the centuries of studying torture, versus fists.” He grabbed what looked like a harmless, if not a little bulky and water gun looking like that children use for play, gun. But I knew better.
“Don’t you dare-” I began taking a step forward and then spun in a jump to avoid the ray, “-point that thing at me!” I finished when my feet landed on the ground, but I was no longer in the lab. I looked around, I was outside, I was in the middle of a grass field, beneath a starry sky when I know it had been raining outside our house.
“Son of a bitch!” I screamed into the night air and began stomping my feet like a child, “Goddammit!”
“Excuse me!”
I froze and turned slowly to see I had an audience.